The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, said that Russia has been using thousands of SpaceX Starlink satellite terminals, including in the occupied territories, for quite a long time.
The Wall Street Journal writes about this.
According to Kirill Budanov, the Russians are purchasing Starlink terminals on such a scale that it could reduce Ukraine's advantage on the battlefield. Last year, the Ukrainian government said about 42,000 Starlink terminals are in use by the military, hospitals, businesses and humanitarian organizations.
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Communication via Starlink is considered more secure than cellular or radio communications. So the Pentagon struck a deal with SpaceX in 2023 to help fund access for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. But the Russians did not have an equally reliable communication system.
According to Budanov, Russian private firms are now purchasing terminals from intermediaries who take Starlink ostensibly for personal use, and bring the equipment to Russia through neighboring countries, including former Soviet republics.
Even occupying companies want Starlink terminals.
Starlink dealers work in Moscow
The Wall Street Journal notes that the Russian search engine Yandex, when asked about Starlink, returns information about numerous dealers in Moscow and beyond who promise to install systems throughout the country and even in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
For example, the site strlnk.ru promises to establish Starlink operation in the occupied territories of Crimea, Lugansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions with a monthly fee starting from $100.
Another site using the name of a German home appliance company sells Starlink terminals for almost 300 thousand rubles (just over $3000).
Starlink communications rely on the infrastructure of satellites in orbit. Terminals are used on the ground that allow you to connect to high-speed Internet. To communicate with satellites you need an unobstructed view of the sky.
SpaceX can control where to provide Internet services and where not.
According to Budanov, GUR units often work behind enemy lines, so it is known that the Starlink service has been operating in occupied territory for quite a long time.
SpaceX does not sell Starlink RF
Earlier, Elon Musk stated that SpaceX does not sell its products to Russia.
— “As far as we know, not a single Starlink has been directly or indirectly sold to Russia,” Musk wrote in a post on the social platform X.
Neither Musk nor Starlink responded to The Wall Street Journal’s request about whether Russia could purchase terminals in other countries and then use them in the occupied territories. However, Starlink stated that SpaceX will deactivate stations if it detects that they are being used by unauthorized or unauthorized parties.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Starlink was not officially delivered to Russia and was not used in the country.
Access to Starlink has become a political issue
US Senator Ron Wyden previously said that SpaceX must do everything possible to prevent the Russian military from using this technology to wage war in Ukraine.
In September, Musk said that early in the war he rejected a request to activate Starlink service in the Sevastopol area in occupied Crimea to avoid direct involvement of his SpaceX in sinking Russian ships there.
